Kim Young-hoon urges KCTU to return to tripartite dialogue, says government backs union's conditions

'President Lee open to consensus-based model … build trust through dialogue, not procedural logic'

'Mega special zone social dialogue gives youth hope … its success is key to permanent return'

'Workplace Basic Act to be legislated this year … blueprint for AI-era social contract within this term'

Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon speaks during an interview with Yonhap at the Seoul Employment and Labor Office in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon has urged the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to return to the standing tripartite social dialogue led by the Economic, Social and Labor Council, known as the ESLC.

The government has already conveyed its agreement with the conditions the KCTU previously proposed, Kim said, adding that what remains is for the confederation to enter the dialogue and work out the details with the other participants.

"The government has already sent a written response saying it agrees with the KCTU's conditions," Kim said in an interview with Yonhap at the Seoul Employment and Labor Office on Thursday. "If that is the case, how the system should be changed is something that must now be discussed by the participants after coming in — they cannot keep getting bogged down in procedural arguments."

"I know the labor community has distrust of social dialogue, but trust can be built through dialogue rather than being forced through institutional arrangements," he said. "Dialogue itself must become the goal."

The KCTU has not returned to the ESLC since withdrawing from its predecessor, the Labor-Management-Government Council, in 1999. With only the Federation of Korean Trade Unions representing labor at the ESLC, the body has long been criticized as only half-functional.

Recently, however, voices within the KCTU calling for a return to social dialogue have grown louder, driven by rapid changes in the labor environment — including the government's push to apply special labor provisions in mega special economic zones, the wider adoption of AI, and the spread of special-employment and platform work. On Wednesday, the KCTU convened a delegates' assembly and attempted to put to a vote whether to return to social dialogue on three conditions: a consensus-based operating model, guaranteed participation by industry-level unions, and a renaming of the ESLC. The vote was derailed, however, when a bloc of opponents walked out just before the ballot, leaving the assembly short of a quorum.

On the KCTU's demand to replace majority voting with a consensus-based model in social dialogue, Kim said President Lee Jae Myung also supports the idea. "What is agreed upon today is today's conclusion, and what has been agreed upon must be reflected in policy — that is what gives it the highest acceptance," he said.

Kim doubled down, saying that industry-level unions could participate under the existing ESLC law, and that ESLC Chairman Kim Ji-hyung had left open the possibility of a name change. "Building trust first, before securing it through institutional arrangements, is the process of institutionalization — and I believe that is more irreversible," he said.

The KCTU is currently participating in a single-issue social dialogue on whether to apply special labor provisions under the mega special zone legislation. Kim called the fact that this single-issue dialogue had come together "half a success," and said whether it could persuade those opposed to permanent social dialogue and dispel their concerns would depend on how the current talks go.

"Ultimately, the government's intention in setting up this single-issue social dialogue is to make the mega special zones a success, and that success would show young people that there is hope for South Korea," Kim said. "If we share the goals of industrial success, youth employment and regional growth, we can absolutely make it work."

On the planned extension of the retirement age, which the government aims to legislate this year, Kim said a "two-track" approach was needed because youth employment issues are not uniform. "In jobs that young people prefer — at public institutions and large companies — extending the retirement age risks conflicting with youth employment, so a generational coexistence compromise must be reached," he said. "But for the other 80 percent of jobs — where young people are not coming even without a retirement age — the environment must be made to meet their expectations."

Kim also said that the contentious question of extending the Labor Standards Act to workplaces with fewer than five employees — which labor and management sharply disagree on — could be resolved gradually through public deliberation. "Among the various items, such as annual and monthly leave, overtime pay and maternity protection, we need to first identify what can and must be done, and find ways to implement them," he said. "Both labor and management need to come together formally and seriously discuss how to build solidarity among the vulnerable, rather than pitting them against each other."

Kim noted that he had asked the minimum wage deliberation committee this year to review the possibility of applying minimum wage protections to workers in commission-based arrangements, including those in special-employment categories and freelancers, but the proposal was voted down after opposition from the employer side. "I believe a minimum remuneration system for special-employment and freelance workers is a government obligation, and we have already commissioned research on it," he said. "We plan to draw up a government proposal."

"The International Labour Organization adopted a convention this year recognizing freelancers as workers, and to ratify it, the Workplace Basic Act must be legislated at this year's regular session of the National Assembly," Kim added.

On the questions of job creation and profit-sharing raised in the wake of the chipmaker boom, Kim said a discussion body on a "green paper on a new social contract for the AI era" — which began operation last month — would identify the core questions South Korean society needs to answer, with that process to be completed this year.

"The selection of questions is currently underway, and the goal is to carry out about two years of public deliberation based on those questions and present a blueprint within this presidential term," Kim said. He explained that the green paper's underlying concern is the need to discuss a new social contract. "The social contract that drove the golden age of European capitalism was one in which capital guaranteed employment to workers, workers paid taxes and contributions, and the state provided benefits to workers even when they were laid off during an economic crisis," he said. "The starting point of the green paper is the recognition that we now need to discuss a different social contract."

On the so-called Yellow Envelope Act, which marked seven months in operation this month, Kim said the single-channel bargaining procedure for primary and subcontractor negotiations "remains valid as a mechanism for quickly determining the employer status of primary contractors and preventing the judicialization of labor relations."

Asked whether the Lee Jae Myung administration, widely seen as pro-labor, was neglecting employment policy, Kim said the two could not be viewed separately. "Employment problems can only be solved if the number of 'good jobs' — free from wage theft, industrial accidents and workplace harassment — increases," he said.

yckim6452@heraldcorp.com